Donald Trump's appeal to Evangelical voters is perplexing and bizarre, and it has earned the attention of more than one political observer. Samantha Bee dug into the phenomenon and came to the conclusion that it boiled down to a kind of identity politics, and now legendary documentarian Ken Burns has weighed in. He sat down with The Daily Beast to discuss a retrospective of his films just released online, but the conversation quickly drifted to the 2016 election.
Burns did not mince words when it came to Donald Trump and the religious right, the culmination of what he sees as a long con:
"The Republican Party has been extraordinarily successful at getting many groups of people to vote against their self-interest. Evangelicals are voting for Donald Trump. What part of Donald Trump reminds you of Jesus Christ? Trump lusts after his own daughter on national radio, talks about women's bodies and breasts in such a disparaging way, and mocks them. How is this in any way Christian? When you make the "other" the enemy, how is that Christian?"
Much of Burns' work deals with "race as a central subtheme of American life," and that extends to The Central Park Five, a documentary about five black teenagers wrongfully convicted of raping a white female jogger in New York's famed greenspace. Burns believes that Trump's role in that fiasco is telling:
"He shamefully took out a full-page ad in all of the New York dailies asking for a restoration of the death penalty for two 14-year-old, two 15-year-old, and one 16-year-old innocent children. While New York State laws would not have permitted their execution, just the fact that there was a rush to judgment ought to be complete evidence of how temperamentally unsuited he is for the office he now seeks.
And when asked if his involvement was racially motivated:
"Of course it was [racially motivated]. I found no outrage at the "preppie killer." The problem was that the initial idea of the crime was that there were these "wilding" black youths—a wolf pack—that attacked this innocent blond woman, and that's always been the primal fear of Americans as they tolerated slavery and then tolerated Jim Crow. You had newspapers in a progressive northern city sounding like a southern racist newspaper from the 1880s gleefully reporting on a lynching."
You can catch the full interview here.
#1: Roscoe To: Willie Green (#0)
Pathetic
Roscoe posted on 2016-07-17 17:24:05 Reply Private Reply
#2: Justified To: Willie Green (#0)
I know not to raise the bar to Jesus Christ. That would be heading to the wrong direction for her.
Justified posted on 2016-07-17 17:27:46 Reply Private Reply
#3: paraclete To: Willie Green (#0)
Obviously a rhetorical question. Dump is as far from the attributes of Christ as you could get and yet millions would follow him through the gates of hell and into the abyss
paraclete posted on 2016-07-17 18:08:36 Reply Private Reply
#4: Justified To: paraclete (#3)
Are we talking Clinton or Trump here! ;)
Well when you have a choice of Clinton or other you must go for other. It may not be your first, second or third choice but there is not much worse than Hillary or Obama. I just can not imagine back to back worst presidents in history. I know we could not survive as a country.
What Trump has shown is that pubs can fight and still win. If nothing else is taken from this election is that pubs do not have to run and hide once the MSM starts beating them up in the press because they are not progressive enough.
Justified posted on 2016-07-17 18:16:08 Reply Private Reply
#5: paraclete To: Justified (#4)
I was talking about Dump, Dilliary didn't enter into the question. As I have said before you have Hobson's choice, the devil you know or the devil you don't know. All that Dump offers is change, what sort of change remains to be seen, you will go from a man who knows nothing to a man who knows everything, on the other hand if you want someone who will lie to you and who's attitude is what does it matter, choose Dilliary
paraclete posted on 2016-07-17 18:38:52 Reply Private Reply
#6: rlk To: Willie Green (#0)
None. I'll take a General Patton over Jesus Christ.
rlk posted on 2016-07-17 20:33:09 Reply Private Reply
#7: Justified To: paraclete (#5)
She will be worse by a 1000 times to Trump if he just sucks when it comes to USSC justices, economy, terrorism, border security, illegal immigration, taxation, government corruption and the Clinton's need to politically die[just like the bushes].
Lets not forget race relations since we have 8 dead cops in just the last few days.
There is nothing that she can do better than anyone except make America worse. Thats what I do know.
Justified posted on 2016-07-17 20:38:28 Reply Private Reply
#8: redleghunter To: Willie Green (#0)
The time he paid off a man's mortgage for fixing his car asking for nothing in return. He did so using his own money and not the government's.
redleghunter posted on 2016-07-17 20:47:28 Reply Private Reply
#9: Rufus T Firefly To: Willie Green (#0)
I did. Can I now have that 10 minutes of my life back?
I knew Ken Burns political viewpoints were likely to the left of mine, but I could still appreciate the documentaries he's done.
Turns out that he's just another brain-dead liberal. Too bad.
Advice - don't waste 10 minutes like I did. I'll summarize for you.
1. Trump is the devil
2. America is hopelessly racist - always has been, always will be.
3. Some people thought that electing President Zero (twice) might at least go a little ways to getting us past our inherent racism.
The oh-so enlightened Ken Burns, however, knew better. "Just wait", he told everyone.
And then the ultra-racist Tea Party was formed.
Now I see why Willie posted this.
Rufus T Firefly posted on 2016-07-17 21:00:00 Reply Private Reply
#10: Stoner To: Justified (#7)
Very good point !!!
Stoner posted on 2016-07-17 21:01:25 Reply Private Reply
#11: Stoner To: redleghunter (#8)
Stoner posted on 2016-07-17 21:12:44 Reply Private Reply
#12: Logsplitter To: Willie Green (#0)
Logsplitter posted on 2016-07-17 22:00:25 Reply Private Reply
#13: Don To: Willie Green (#0)
Don posted on 2016-07-17 22:27:23 Reply Private Reply
#14: paraclete To: Justified (#7)
I expect this is what it is like to be on the horns of a dilemma. I recently experienced the same feeling in our recent election. When there is a choice between Antony and Caesar do you choose Brutus? Will we see the blood of Trump or Clinton?
paraclete posted on 2016-07-17 22:28:55 Reply Private Reply
#15: Vicomte13 To: Willie Green (#0)
The great hair, of course!
Vicomte13 posted on 2016-07-17 22:42:25 Reply Private Reply
#16: buckeroo To: Willie Green (#0)
buckeroo posted on 2016-07-17 22:51:44 Reply Private Reply
#17: paraclete To: buckeroo (#16)
My thoughts exactly, just when satan was convincing us he didn't exist, there he is
paraclete posted on 2016-07-18 01:54:50 Reply Private Reply
#18: Willie Green To: Don (#13)
Willie Green posted on 2016-07-18 08:09:48 Reply Private Reply
#19: redleghunter To: Willie Green (#18)
You are a piece of work.
redleghunter posted on 2016-07-18 09:04:14 Reply Private Reply
#20: misterwhite To: Willie Green (#0)
Not as successful as the Democrat Party has been in getting blacks to vote against their self-interest. Obama got 96% of the black vote and what did it get them?
As far as Donald Trump's appeal to Evangelical voters ... who else are they going to vote for? Hillary, the anti-Christ?
misterwhite posted on 2016-07-18 09:05:09 Reply Private Reply
#21: Willie Green To: redleghunter (#19)
Don't be so thin-skinned, dude.
Willie Green posted on 2016-07-18 09:24:24 Reply Private Reply
#22: Hondo68 To: misterwhite, Darrell Castle (#20)
Hondo68 posted on 2016-07-18 10:29:13 Reply Private Reply
#23: Justified To: Willie Green, misterwhite (#20)
Blacks are doing so well under the demoncrat party that they would have to go back to slavery to do worse! The first black president has been the worst president for blacks. Go figure? Well he has been the worst president in history and all he did is more race baiting which made it worse for blacks.
All the GOP is doing is filling the emptiness that the demoncrat party leaves as they move closer to communism. So really if you hate the GOP you really just hate the demoncrat party of yesterday. So that tells me that you see only D & R instead of actual issues.
Justified posted on 2016-07-18 13:13:17 Reply Private Reply
#24: redleghunter To: Willie Green (#21)
redleghunter posted on 2016-07-18 15:46:21 Reply Private Reply
#25: Don To: Willie Green (#18)
Don posted on 2016-07-18 16:04:28 Reply Private Reply
#26: Don To: redleghunter (#19)
Don posted on 2016-07-18 16:06:01 Reply Private Reply